Copyright protection extends to scientific, literary or artistic works irrespective of their form, purpose or merit or of the method of their reproduction.

Copyright extends to published or unpublished works if expressed in any material form which permits the results of the author's creative activity to be reproduced (manuscript, design, picture, public delivery or performance, film or mechanical or magnetic recording etc.).

SECTION 97. Copyright in works published in the USSR and abroad

Where a work is first published in the USSR or is unpublished but exists in a material form in the USSR the copyright belongs to the author and his heirs regardless of their citizenship.

Copyright is also acquired by Soviet citizens and their heirs in works first published abroad or existing in material form on foreign territory.

No copyright is acquired by non-citizens of the USSR for works first published or existing abroad except on the basis and within the limits of international conventions concluded by the USSR on this subject.

SECTION 98. Author's rights

The author receives the right:

to publication, reproduction and distribution of his works by any lawful means under his own name, under a pseudonym, or anonymously;

to the integrity of his work;

to receive compensation for the use of his work by other persons except in the cases provided by law. The rates of copyright royalty are laid down by the legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics.

SECTION 99. Co-authorship

The copyright in work created jointly by two or more persons (collective work) belongs to the authors jointly whether or not such work constitutes one complete whole or consists of parts each of which can stand by itself. Each of the co-authors retains copyright over any separate part of a collective work produced by him which is of value by itself.

SECTION 100. Copyright of juridical persons. Copyright in works produced in the course of employment

Juridical persons may acquire copyright in the cases and within the limits set out in the legislation of the USSR and Union Republics.

Where a work is produced in the course of performance of service in a scientific or other organisation the copyright belongs to the actual author. The method by which the organisation may utilise such work and the cases in which the author is entitled to receive royalties are laid down by the legislation of the USSR and Union Republics.

SECTION 101. Use of the author's work by other persons

The use of works by other persons is permitted solely on the basis of a contract with the author or his heirs except in the cases laid down by law.

Standard contracts for the use of works (publication, production of performance, cinema production and other author's contracts) are approved by the procedure laid down in the legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics.

Any term of a contract made with an author under which he is in a worse position than he would be under the law or the standard contract is void and is replaced by the appropriate provision of the law or the standard contract.

SECTION 102. Translation of works into other languages

Every published work may be translated into a different language without the consent of the author but upon notification to him and provided the original meaning and integrity of the work is preserved. The original author acquires a right to royalties for the use of his work in translation in the other language in the instances laid down by the legislation of the Union Republics.

The translator acquires a copyright in the translation made by him.

SECTION 103. Use of a work without the author's consent and without paying royalties

An author's work may be used in the following cases without his consent and without paying royalties, provided the author's surname and the source from which the material is taken are stated:

(1) the use of the published work of another person to produce a new and original work, except the adaptation of a narrative work to a drama or film or vice versa, or the adaptation of a dramatic work to a filmscenario and vice versa;

(2) the reproduction in scientific and critical works, educational and political educational editions of various published scientific, literary and artistic works or extracts therefrom within the limits laid down by the legislation of the Union Republics;

(3) information in periodicals, films, radio and television broadcasts about published works of literature, science, or art;

(4) reproduction in newspapers, in the cinema, on radio or television of speeches and reports given in public and also of published works of literature, science and art;

(5) reproduction by any method, except mechanical copying by contact, of works of fine art situated in places open to the public other than exhibitions and museums.

SECTION 104. Use of an author's works without his consent but with the payment of royalties

The following are permitted without the consent of the author, provided his surname is stated and royalties are paid:

(1) public performance of published works; however, if no charge is made to the audience, the author has a right to royalties only in the instances specified in the legislation of the Union Republics;

(2) recording for the purpose of public reproduction or distribution of published works on film, gramophone records, magnetic tape or other devices, except for use of the work in the cinema, on radio or on television (point four of Section 103);

(3) use by a composer of published literary works for the preparation of a libretto;

(4) use of works of fine art or photographs in making industrial products; in these eases, the author's name need not be stated.

SECTION 105. Term of copyright

The author acquires copyright for the duration of his life. The legislation of the Union Republics may prescribe shorter terms of copyright for particular classes of works.

Copyright passes to the heirs of the author by the procedure and within the limits laid down in the legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics. Where the term of copyright is a fixed period the heirs will take the copyright for the unexpired part of the term.

The legislation of the Union Republics may impose limits on the enjoyment of copyright by heirs, in particular, limits on the proportion of royalties, depending on their total amount, payable to the heirs; in no case, however, shall the royalties payable to the heirs exceed fifty per cent of the royalty which would have been due to the author [had he lived].

SECTION 106. Purchase of copyright by the State

The State may compulsorily purchase the copyright to the publication, public performance or other utilisation from the author or his heirs by the procedure laid down in the legislation of the Union Republics.